Official blog for the Saga of Anaimon series

The Aletheians

The Aletheians

The Aletheian conclave stands in the eyes of the Order as malcontents, apostates; criminals and exiles who have forsaken the wisdom and benevolence of the Gods, and turned their back upon their fellow man. For the Aletheians, they discard the teachings of the Order and begrudge the Order its’ far-reaching influence, power, and control over much of Anaimon, and they work actively to undermine its’ efforts while enriching their own lives materially. Driven by a sole philosophical belief, being what they term the ‘Ultimate Truth’, the Aletheians rarely represent a serious risk to the Orders as a whole, Operating as isolated pockets of disaffected outcasts, they turn to criminal enterprise, seeking to make their fortunes outside the influence and governance of the Order, profiting from any and all crimes they deem sufficient means for their ends.

That said, even a single cell of Aletheian operatives can cause a great deal of difficulty for the Order of Anaimon. Small-scale actions include simple violence and terrorism, while longer-term strategies seek to upset the uneasy balance of power in many areas of Anaimon where the Order’s dominion is either unsecured or still contested by the former inhabitants, such as the Iera and the Syndicals. In direct opposition of the Order, the Aletheians disregard the rule of the Gods, acknowledging that the ‘Ultimate Truth’ is the way forward, and that men and women should serve only themselves in a culture of egalitarian ideologies and mutual respect; that morality, culture, and civilisation as a whole should be created and shaped not by the whims of Gods or mystic forces, but by men and women alone.

The ‘Ultimate Truth’ however ironically rings hollow, for most Aletheians are too selfish and indulgent to bother with any real sense of forward progress in terms of defining, shaping, or contributing to morality, culture, or civilisation. Their more recent history of deliberate actions, undermining the influence of the Order and the delicate power structures that form a balance in parts of Anaimon serves to alienate, rather than elevate, the Aletheians as a people.

Sadly, the original intentions and passionate humanism of the Aletheians’ Ultimate Truth is remembered by only a small, select few of their people who are directly descended from the first citizens displaced, exiled, and ultimately conquered by the Orders in the First War of Apostasy. Of these torch-bearers, little can be said, for they are hounded even by their own people for daring to dream for a better future for mankind. As it stands, they cannot bear to submit to the will of anyone but their own hearts, and though they have long fostered great animosity toward the Order for subjugating them, they exist as a splinter faction within the greater Aletheian conclave; repudiated and ignored, hunted and shamed.

Forming small, secret societies outside the realms of the Order, the early Aletheians tried to rebel as chaotic, disparate factions, before their movement became a massive uprising after collaborating upon their objectives and desire for change in Anaimon. The discovery of the common beliefs among these groups formed their ‘Ultimate Truth’ that changed their entire perspective on life, and they grew from a quarrlsome, cynical people into radical agents seeking primacy for man above all else, including the Gods and natural energies of Anaimon.

Despite a painful and bloody defeat, the Aletheians since continue to strike at the Order, ever seeking to cripple it while taking advantage of living outside the Order’s definitions of societal behaviour, but their original objective now stands as an empty sham; an anachronistic ideal that most Aletheians consider a worthless endeavour. They are rooted out by the Order at every opportunity; their small operational cells infiltrated by the Garren Militares, yet the secretive leadership of the Aletheian conclave remains obscured utterly to the Order, and for every cell the Order wipes out, another is formed just as swiftly.

The naval fleets of the Order act as an impressive deterrent to Aletheian raids upon the more populous regions of Anaimon where the Orders govern, but for many of the smaller outlying settlements and villages, Aletheian raiding is as commonplace as the Order’s tithes and tributes, Iera war-parties, and the gruff, stoic traders of the Syndicals. Unlike the Schtelten Ploionmahkes of the Order’s armadas, the Aletheians do not have formal training in seamanship or navigation, instead relying on the experience of their begrudging Kyberneta mentors who ruthlessly guard their hard-earned knowledge and offer it only to the most ruthless, intrepid, and opportunistic of their crews.

The Aletheians were not previously natural sailors, but circumstances have inured them to the lifestyle and in it they find a sense of purpose, and a convenient means to roam and raid with little fear of it catching up to them, as long as they remain cunning and aloof, and exploit the world rather than belong to it. For those who live on under the Aletheian name, their earliest lofty ideas of equality and primacy for man are relegated to obscurity, and they seek only to tear down the Order, to permanently disrupt structured civilisation, and to usher forth an age of anarchy and rebellion where all men and women are truly free. In such chaotic times, the Aletheians not only make the most profit, but they also enjoy a rare status they otherwise never hold – respect.

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